Computing devices often require rendering of two-dimensional (2D) curves to a display. Computing devices may require rending of 2D curves for rendering of documents, e.g., to a Portable Document Format (PDF). Computing devices may also require rendering of 2D curves for resolution-independent representation of various geometric shapes, e.g., circles, ellipses, rectangles with rounded corners, and the like. Such shapes are popular in user interface menus and websites. The rendering of 2D shapes via parametric curves may be used in web animation formats such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.
Due to an increasing demand for graphics in three-dimensional (3D) graphics, such as for video games, character animations, and the like, computing devices often include dedicated 3D graphics hardware. Conventional 3D graphics hardware, however, does not provide direct support for rendering 2D curves. As such, computing devices may include separate graphics hardware for rendering 2D and 3D curves. Having to maintain separate graphics hardware is costly in both silicon area and power consumption. In the context of mobile computing devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless communication devices, global positioning devices and the like, the increase area or power consumption is undesirable as it results in larger sized devices, reduced battery times and the like.